Liberal MP Julian Leeser gives dire warning about future of young Australians due to social media use after Labor 'fumbled' ban
Shadow education minister Julian Leeser has given a dire warning about the future of Australia’s youth due to the Albanese government’s “fumbled” attempt to curtail social media use. Shadow education minister Julian Leeser has given a dire warning about the future of Australia’s youth due to the Albanese government’s “fumbled” attempt to curtail social media use.
It comes after the Albanese government on Saturday evening announced it would raise the maximum penalty for breaches of the under-16s ban to $99 million with new legislation.
The increased penalties are in response to a study which found some four in five children were still accessing prohibited apps.
Mr Leeser flagged that social media use was affecting the minds of young people and that Labor had not done enough to address the issue.
“As the shadow education minister I want to see young people exercise their brain power in the most fulsome way possible and we know that social media robs people of their attention spans,” he said.
“Given the challenges Australia faces in the coming years, given the challenges the world faces, we need young people to be at their sharpest.
“Spending hours and hours on social media does not help that, so I support the principle of the social media ban.”
An observational study of 408 12-to-17-year-olds by the University of Newcastle concluded some four in five under-16s were still using social media.
Social media companies found in breach of Australia’s landmark youth ban will face double-strength penalties.
eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, would also be empowered to compel social media companies to provide evidence of steps they have taken to comply with the ban. “Labor has clearly fumbled this, but we are interested to see what their changes are and we will consider them in due course,” Mr Leeser said.
Asked what he meant by “fumbled”, Mr Leeser insisted big tech was not taking the government’s response “seriously enough”.
“There's clearly people who are subverting the social media ban, that's the first thing, and the second thing is that the big tech haven't taken this seriously enough,” he said.
“That's why we'll consider these matters when the government presents their full policy proposals to us.
“The principle of the social-media ban is a good one, and that is about, in my view, ensuring that young people are able to have the full concentration span that they need to deal with the challenges we face, the economic challenges, the challenges of AI.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Communications Minister Anika Wells suggested they believed the existing laws were not strong enough to ensure compliance amongst "big tech" companies.
“I’m heartened by the shift in conversation and the global momentum we’ve seen since introducing the social media minimum age, but it’s clear big tech are not doing enough to comply with the law – there are still too many children on social media,” Mr Albanese said.
“These changes reflect the seriousness with which we take any failure by social media companies to comply with our world-leading law.”
Two-thirds of underage users stayed online by self-declaring an age over 16 or posting a selfie that the platform accepted as over 16, the paper said.
The study concluded the legislation had resulted in “limited implementation, incomplete compliance, and substantial circumvention of social media restrictions”.
"Despite the intent of the (ban) to delay access to social media platforms and reduce the potential for online harms, little evidence was found of immediate substantive reductions in reported social media use by adolescents," it said.
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